China to launch more BeiDou-3 satellites in 2017

More BeiDou-3 satellites will be launched in November 2017, according to a senior designer of the satellite navigation system.

By the end of this year, two more groups of BeiDou-3 satellites will be sent into space, said Ran Chengqi of state-owned Beidou Navigation Satellite System on Monday at a high-tech forum.

The satellite navigation system will provide services for Belt and Road countries around 2018, and form a complete global satellite navigation system by 2020, said Ran.

BeiDou-3’s position accuracy is less than five meters, he said.

Currently, the system is able to provide open services to the Asia-Pacific region. China is the third country to develop a satellite navigation system after the United States and Russia.




5.5 pct of China’s labor force work in sharing economy

Around 5.5 percent of China’s labor force work in the rapidly expanding sharing economy, according to a report from the top economic planner Monday.

The market value of the Internet-based sharing economy exceeded 2 trillion yuan (about 305.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, with more than 50 million people working in the sector, said a report released by the National Development and Reform Commission.

The success of business models such as bike-sharing platforms, including Mobike and ofo, has inspired an increasing number of sharing enterprises eager to ride the wave.

Meanwhile, on the back of strong government support for innovation and entrepreneurship, industries such as car-sharing, education, entertainment and healthcare have prospered, seeing double-digit growth in demand for labor force last year, the report said.

“Mass Innovation and entrepreneurship have played an important role in increasing employment,” the report said, citing rapid expansion in emerging industries such as cloud computing, industrial robots and new energy vehicles.

With the traditional industries losing steam, China is seeking to foster new growth from innovative business models, which have proved to be key forces underpinning economic growth.

The latest Global Innovation Index showed China rose three places to 22nd on the list of the world’s most innovative nations in 2017, the only middle-income country to join the top 25 innovative economies.




CPC to amend party constitution

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is expected to amend its constitution at the upcoming national congress.

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee deliberated a draft amendment to the constitution at a meeting which was presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, on Monday.




5 more Tusi chieftain tombs discovered in Guizhou

Archaeologists have discovered five more tombs belonging to the Tusi chieftains in southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

The Tusi system was an ancient chieftain system adopted by feudal Chinese emperors to govern ethnic minorities in the southwest from the 13th to the early 20th century. “Tusi” refers to a tribal leader appointed as an imperial official by the central government.

The tombs were found in Zunyi City. Of the newly found tombs of the Yang family, three belong to Tusi chieftains of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 A.D.). Nine Yang family tombs had already been discovered, according to the Guizhou Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

Zunyi was historically called Bozhou. The Yang family was one of the major four chieftain families in Guizhou. The family governed Bozhou for 725 years until 1601, when the last chieftain Yang Yinglong died in a failed rebellion.

The tombs will provide rich material for research about the Tusi chieftain system and culture, according to the institute.




Water diversion benefits over 11 mln Beijing residents

China’s south-to-north water diversion project has benefited more than 11 million people in Beijing, authorities said Monday.

The middle route of the project has pumped 2.6 billion cubic meters of water into Beijing, according to the project office.

More than 1.8 billion cubic meters went to Beijing’s water plants, while 630 million cubic meters went into reservoirs or underground. The rest went into rivers and lakes in the city center.

The water diversion project carries 9.5 billion cubic meters of water each year through canals and pipes from the Danjiangkou reservoir in central China’s Hubei Province to the provinces of Henan and Hebei as well as Tianjin and Beijing.

The project was conceived by Mao Zedong in 1952. The State Council approved the project in December 2002 after nearly half a century of debate.